Ray Kinney
Longtime Supporter of Little Friends
Ray Kinney first became aware of Little Friends through a class at Naperville Central High School.
“American Problems”, taught by Dave Dillon, was one of Ray’s favorite classes. “Coach Dillon would bring in speakers, like a Nazi sympathizer and a concentration camp survivor, and have them debate.
One day he had another teacher chase a student through our classroom, a gun fired in the background, and then he asked us to write down what we saw. It was a really interesting class, and there was a community service component to it as well. So me and a couple of my buddies picked to go to the YMCA in downtown Naperville to swim—easy right? We thought we picked the one thing where we really weren’t going to have to do that much. Well, we got to the Y and found out that we were being paired, one on one, with some of the clients from Little Friends. I was assigned to Paul, who was afraid of the water, but by the end of the semester Paul would see me and yell ‘Hey Ray!’ and then we would both jump in the water together.” This experience led him to volunteer at the Friends of Handicapped Riders the very next semester. This was a group that aided physically, mentally and emotionally handicapped people in learning to ride horses, and participants were helped by a certified instructor and a staff of volunteers. Ray’s enthusiasm for volunteering and helping those less fortunate is still going strong today.
Ray has been involved in so many groups and in so many ways over the years (Naperville Jaycees,
Naperville Chamber of Commerce, Exchange Club of Naperville, just to name a few), but he found his way back to Little Friends through the Annual Benefit Auction in his late twenties. He and his wife Paula were asked to co-chair the event with several other couples. “The auction for us then was a whole family affair—a lot of us would stay at the hotel, the kids would go swimming, we would have a preparty before the event even started—the Little Friends Auction was THE event of the year,” said Kinney.
“The relationships that I made through chairing that event--people like Tom O’Donnell, The Matsock’s, and The Bobosky’s-- those have stayed with me until now. They were so generous with their time, their support, and they showed me early on how important it is to give back to your community. When you have a great organization like Little Friends, it’s easy to help, and it makes you feel good too.”
Ray has passed his community volunteering genes on to his children, Sarah and J.R. Sarah, a senior at
Indiana University, has worked the past two summers for Little Friends at Krejci Academy. She is majoring in Special Education, having found her calling while a student at Naperville Central High School through the Adaptive P.E. program. This program adapts physical education to the needs and capabilities of special needs students and is facilitated by peer mentors. “Sarah had to write an essay as part of the application process, and then she was selected. Pat Adamatis, who runs that program at
Central, taught Sarah so much. To this day, if I’m over at the high school, I still have people come up to me and say, ‘Aren’t you Sarah’s dad?’ Really a great program and she loved every minute of it.” His son,
J.R. who is enrolled at the University of Iowa, will often visit the YMCA in Iowa City for pick-up basketball games with special needs groups.
When Ray thinks of Little Friends he thinks of hope; hope for the clients they serve, and hope for the families they touch. Ray’s favorite thing about Little Friends is the clients. He loves taking tours of the programs and said he learns something new about Little Friends with every visit. He also said that the
Community Living Services program at Little Friends is really the quiet success story of the agency. “They are really helping folks with developmental disabilities to live great lives—fostering self-worth, their own identities, and enjoying whatever it is that they want to enjoy. Just like you and me.” As Little Friends celebrates their 50 th Anniversary this year, the hope looking forward is that there will always be people like Ray Kinney who will continue to champion their cause.